April 2012

March 2012

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Update: The stream is over. Thanks to everyone who joined us! If you missed the live build, you can still watch the archive on Twitch or YouTube. You can also now check out benchmarks and photos in our completed build write-up.

Join us live via Twitch.tv on Tuesday, May 9th at 2PM CDT, as we build a $650 Gaming PC in Corsair's new Carbide Series SPEC-04 Mid-Tower case. See below for the complete part list.

Corsair also sent their new Glaive RGB Gaming Mouse, so we'll be taking a look at it as well after the system is up and running.

A big thanks to Corsair for providing the case (and mouse) for this build.

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Certainly an option, though we typically recommend an SSD for performance if it fits in your budget. It's a pretty noticeable improvement to the system in general as well as for multi-player game load times.

That said, the drive we are using here is one we selected because we already had on hand rather than optimizing for a more affordable option. You can find 240GB SSDs for a bit cheaper as we show in our Entry Level build guide.

ssd's aren't necessary, if you can fit one in your build great but if not they aren't dont have to be in your build. I think a i5 is a great thing for alot of games, I am using a i5 6500 atm and it is doing fine.

No, SSD's are not necessary for modern rigs. They help speed things up so I would definitely recommend picking one up for your OS but later. Get the best CPU and GPU combo that you can afford now, make sure that your PSU is of a good brand ( I recommend EVGA) and last of all, try to fit 16gbs of RAM into your build. Once you have done these things, if you have budget left over I would recommend getting a $50-$60 120gb SSD for your OS.

I just recently picked up an SSD for my OS and Fallout 4 after 2 years of just using a 1tb WD Blue drive and I don't regret a thing. Sure things load faster and boot up times are decreased tremendously but in game there are no differences apart from load times on Fallout 4 being cut nearly in half but then again they were only a minute or less on my WD HDD.

Unless you have a specific need for an optical drive, they aren't considered a necessity as they once were. Most games (and software in general) are distributed digitally now. There are two 5.25" bays, so you could certainly add one to this case though if you have older software you would need to install from a disc (or if you like to watch DVDs/BluRays on your PC).

A Windows 10 license would be needed unless you plan to run Linux (or SteamOS, etc), and it can be purchased on a USB thumb drive or as a digital download (to use a 4GB or larger USB thumb drive you already have).

We don't typically include accessories (mouse/keyboard/monitor) or operating systems in the part lists for our guides. There's a lot of personal preference to those aspects of a complete setup, so we stick to demonstrating the core components of the PC itself.

No SSD or aftermarket CPU cooler and cheaper Case and PSU. Also, you didn't go ryzen (you got a 6600k) and some people just want intel. Plus the g4560, at £50/$50 only has competition from the 860k, which is worse.

We didn't attempt to stream from it, but it will probably come down to what you plan to play (and on what settings). Given the CPU usage is already pretty high (or maxed out in some cases) across most of the games we benched, my expectation wouldn't be high for it to game+stream very well unless the game you were playing simply wasn't particularly taxing.

It looks like the MSI 1080 Gaming Z is 279mm long. The case can handle GPUs up to 370mm, so you would be okay there. (FYI, if you create your part list using our system builder, it will warn you on GPU length compatibility issues.)

GTX 1050 Ti US Pricing: Starting at $134.99 but the better version starts at $139.99.

RX 570 US Pricing: Starting at $184.99 but the better version starts at $199.99

So, starting price is $50 less and the better version price is $60 less. Yes, this is on Newegg, but I assume if you are creating a budget PC you don't want to buy off of eBay.

(Also, eBay isn't a reliable source because someone could be selling a card that isn't in great condition for way below what it actually goes for. Compare commercial prices, more reliable and also better quality. Also comes directly from the manufacturer)

In terms of price / performance, the GTX 1050 Ti destroys the RX 570. For the 1050 Ti, the average G3D mark is 5804 and the G3DMark/$Price is 44.65, with the price given by Videocardbenchmark being $129.99. For the 570, the average G3D mark is 6687 and the G3dMark/$Price is 37.15, with the price given by Videocardbenchmark being $179.99.

Yes, the 570 has a much lower sample size but I can't imagine that the price/performance will go up more than 2 points, let alone 7.5 to even compete.

In conclusion, buy a GTX 1050 Ti. Much better price/performance for a budget build.

Or, if you want to spend the money of an RX 570, then just get GTX 1060 3GB. Starts at $184.00 but the better version starts at $199.99.

Plus, the 1060 3GB absolutely destroys the RX 570, with an average G3D mark of 8569 with a G3DMark/$Price of 47.61. Videocardbenchmark also says that their average price for the testing was $179.99.

While I do like using passmark for comparing video cards, its currently quite biased to Nvidia video cards. When two cards of similar performance are compared, such as the gtx 970 and r9 390, the Nvidia card will win, even though the AMD, in this instance, generally performs better. AMD cards are about 10-20% less than what they should really be.

Don't just use one benchmark as the be all end all for which card is better, you need a range of different benchmarks because different cards excel in different areas and games.

Also, 1060 3g is currently a card with extremely obvious planned obsolescence, just get a used gtx 970/r9 290/r9 390 instead for cheap.